From 1999: Discovery Health by Pittard Sullivan

In our series on forgotten rebrands, we take a look at the relaunch of the fledgling cable network Discovery Health in 1999.

Discovery Health had first launched as a digital channel in 1998, but Discovery felt the concept had greater potential as a basic analogue network. With a serious increase in distribution and hundreds of millions spent on programming, they retooled and relaunched the network completely in August 1999.

It may have been an analogue TV network, but this was 1999 so it needed to have a serious Internet connection. Major investment was put into the website which presented a reported 2.5 million pages. As a result, the overall look of the network is very "connected" and informative.

The agency in charge at the time was Pittard Sullivan, the leading broadcast design agency of the '90s. The work at Pittard Sullivan was led by Curt Doty, a veteran of broadcast design.

Curt Doty went on to become head of Pittard Sullivan's broadcast division in August 2000. After the demise of Pittard Sullivan a few months later he has continued as a brand consultant.

Discovery Health performed reasonably for over a decade, until announced a partnership between Discovery and Oprah Winfrey was announced that would see the Oprah Winfrey Network replacing Discovery Health. Today, there's the Discovery Life channel, which is a spiritual successor to Discovery Health.


Discovery Health from Curt Doty on Vimeo.


Jumprope from Curt Doty on Vimeo.

Broadcasting & Cable August 1999
Curt Doty